Insight
by Shieglr
Summary: A short series of drabbles on some of the Naruto characters. Not necessarily to current manga or anime timeline.
1. My Worth

Author's note: Recently, I've been dividing my time between studying, reading, writing, drawing, computer games and just plain slacking off. (I swear that the one thing I can't procrastinate for is procrastinating.) I apologise for any lack of updates in any of my fandoms, I know promises won't work because there is just slightly more than a 1 chance that I'll keep any of them. In any case, besides consorting with my seriously messed-up schedule, I was flipping through my old notebooks when I found a briefly sketched out series of drabbles titled 'Insight'. This is all just a short break from what I'm currently writing and hopefully I'll be able to post something worth reading in a few days time.

I apologise for any spelling/grammatical errors as well as the inconsistent English. I'll kind of have to blame that on MS word, since it just keeps changing my British English to American English. It does not sound very British either, since I'm not from Britain. In either case, enjoy!

Disclaimer: All characters and places belong to Masashi Kishimoto. The author does not gain any monetary benefit from this.

--

In his own eyes, Naruto was worth the least. He did not care about whatever demon he had sealed in his body, particularly since this was the demon that he had become to the people. Performance was the determiner. He had, by far, the least amount of natural talent among his batch-mates – it was only the unnatural talent that had brought him so far. Out of the three members of his team, he was the most brash and least inclined to strategy on field missions.

Sasuke. He was everyone's favourite child genius. The drive for revenge and Uchiha genes had given him intelligence, motivation and the Sharingan – considered by some to be the most dangerous of all the known bloodline limits. Sasuke - Kakashi's favourite disciple, enemy to Uchiha Itachi of the Akatsuki and wanted by Orochimaru. He was a living legend.

Sakura. The smartest girl in the academy. Despite her sentimental attachment, she was effective during missions with her brilliance with traps and devices. Possessing a determination stronger than most, it was altogether too easy for her to pick up new skills and jutsus.

Himself. Container of the Nine-tails, seen as the Nine-tails and measured by the Nine-tails. As much as he had tried to distance himself from the idea, others did not take the cue to do so. On the field, he frequently utilized the restoration powers he had been given to survive. Regardless of the number of crucial missions he had completed because of this, it did not endear him to anyone. It did not seem fair that he should survive where others had not, especially with the help of the Kyuubi.

Thus far he had stumbled his way through life, frequently stepping in sinkholes along the way. The more he struggled, the more he sank. In his own eyes, he would be worth the least until he could make his way out of the mess.


	2. Home

Disclaimer: All characters and places belong to Masashi Kishimoto. The author does not gain any monetary benefit from this.

--

People asked him why he wanted to protect the village, why he had willingly come out of retirement to do so. He said. 'Everyone in this village is part of my family.' It was not his job that made him do so, but his nature as a human being and purpose as a Shinobi.

It had not begun that way. As a student of the Shodaime and Nidaime he had been proud and arrogant at times, frequently flaunting the fact that he was the future Hokage. That had nearly gotten him killed. Then the title of Hokage had morphed for him. It changed from a title of superiority to a role as the protector of his home.

When he ascended the seat during the inauguration, there was neither a sense of smugness nor a sense of dread. Where others might have thought, 'how many of these ninjas will be dead before the year is out', he had imagined the number of lives that these Shinobi would save during that period of war.

After the war, during the period of recuperation, he frequently encountered grieving families in his village – all but a handful of families suffered casualties. He mourned with them, organizing a mass commemoration ceremony for all of Konohagure. He could do so much for them and hope that the sacrifices of the dead were worth it.

Before there was a Hidden Village of the Leaf, his predecessors had fought long and hard at taming the land for their purposes. They had struggled continuously for their people, to give them a home. Now, his job was to ensure that the people could continue to return to this home where their hearts were. The Shodaime and Nidaime had left behind a huge legacy for him to maintain and maintain it he would, until the day he died.


	3. Blind

Disclaimer: All characters and places belong to Masashi Kishimoto. The author does not gain any monetary benefit from this.

--

Hizashi looked at his clan and saw a group of disparate individuals that did not, in any way or form, resemble a clan outside the connections of blood. He looked at his 'brother' and did not see any resemblance to himself. Any evidence of brotherly ties had been broken up long before. They were not brothers.

Hizashi looked at his son and asked himself what would become of him. Would he turn into an exact carbon copy of himself, a bitter and unhappy man who was unfortunate to have been born into the wrong set of circumstances? He did not want Neji to suffer as he had, but he could only hope.

The Hyuuga clan was one of the most powerful, though much less extensive than the Uchihas, in the Shinobi world. Everyone knew who the Hyuuga clan were and how dangerous their Byakugan was. Byakugan, the eyes that saw everything.

Hizashi glanced at his reflection in the mirror and looked away. His clan was a ship fast sinking, weighed down by excessive long-standing tradition. No one but him could see it, however, and he laughed bitterly. It was simply too ironic, and he thought to himself, 'no wonder there are some who think we are blind.'


	4. Gains

Disclaimer: All characters and places belong to Masashi Kishimoto. The author does not gain any monetary benefit from this.

--

'It wasn't worth it.' Kankurou thought. Their mission had been a complete failure, only serving to implicate their village. From what he had heard, they had been betrayed by the sound. Any plan that they had settled prior to the exams had been discarded.

He stood warily, hiding behind a tree and attempting to catch his breath. His puppet had been badly damaged. It was an irritating fact, since his puppet had taken a good month to build and another to insert all its assorted devices and weapons. Konoha had some astoundingly good ninjas, he reflected, and it had been an absolutely disastrous idea to attack them. How his father had been conned into taking action was beyond him.

Kankurou heard the leaves rustle unnaturally and, upon recognizing Temari's fan, called her down. He was relieved for her arrival, but worried at the fact that she had seemed surprised when she heard him. For Temari to be so deeply engrossed in thought to the point where she had not noticed him meant that there was trouble.

What the trouble was, he found out just a few minutes later when they arrived at the place where Gaara had been fighting. As they sped through the air, Kankurou had got progressively more alarmed at the severely depleted state of Gaara's chakra. He had never seen such a weak Gaara before. Even when Gaara had taken on a whole squad at once, it had been the six fully grown Jounins lying on the floor.

The puppeteer glanced at the blonde boy with fear and respect. To have Gaara sprawled flat on the ground with barely any chakra left was a commendable achievement. The two of them had readied for a fight immediately – Gaara, the boy who was by himself a line of the Sunagakure defense, had to be protected at all costs.

He had seen the Uchiha boy fight before and knew that it was unlikely to be an easy fight, despite the fact that there were two of them. Temari had almost made the first move when Gaara stopped the fight from proceeding. Kankurou's mouth fell open at the command, but obeyed accordingly.

It hadn't been worth it. A mission they had gained nothing from and almost lost everything to. The sand was now more vulnerable than it had been in the first place and the extremely weakened Gaara was a large gaping whole to the security of the village. Kankurou slung his injured brother's arm over his shoulder and helped him up. It was the first time in several years that his hand actually touched Gaara's bare skin. He frowned at the severity of the situation as the three of them flew through the woods.

"Temari, Kankurou… I apologise." A hoarse voice had said to him then. Kankurou had almost dropped Gaara then, and he exchanged shocked looks with an equally stunned Temari. He looked down at his younger brother's unguarded expression and smiled.

'Perhaps it was worth it after all.'


	5. Evaluation

Disclaimer: All characters and places belong to Masashi Kishimoto. The author does not gain any monetary benefit from this.

--

I, Hatake Kakashi, am supposed to be a genius. Genin at five, Chuunin at six and only prevented from taking the Jounin exams by the age limit. At the age of twenty-six I have completed thirty-eight S-class missions and two hundred and seventy-six A-class missions, most of them completed before the age of nineteen – according to the elders, this is almost a record. I have a repository of a thousand or so Jutsus in my memory, though it would be utter nonsense if I said I could use all of them. My name is recognized even at the far corners of this world and causes onsets of immense terror to some lesser enemies.

I have good colleagues, though I can hardly call them so, who are sometimes rather insane, but that cannot be helped. Some amongst my colleagues are my friends. Though we do not so much behave as friends as better-than-usual acquaintances since aside our profession we have little in common, except that we suffer together in the face of pedagogy. Any storekeeper might tell you that the most purchased object by the Jounin-senseis is aspirin; I can honestly say that I am no exception.

I teach a bunch of Genin students who are all bright in their own way, though the control and use of their intelligence requires a great deal more training to ensure it does not escape them in time of need as it does now. They remind me of my old team, always bickering and always fighting.

I have also been told that I am a pervert, since I tend to be spotted reading any of the Icha Icha series. This is not quite so horrible, in my opinion, since from the line of disciples stemming from the Sandaime only my teacher did not have such inclinations. I can hardly be blamed, because I was under orders to get a hobby.

This is me at age twenty-six.

Some years back, just following my 'promotion' to Jounin, my team was assigned a mission to the Earth Country. My stupidity cost me a teammate and an eye. The Konohagure memorial statue serves as a glaring reminder to my childhood obtuseness and everyday that I go I ask myself, 'in what way does this qualify me as a genius?'


	6. DREAMS!

Disclaimer: All characters and places belong to Masashi Kishimoto. The author does not gain any monetary benefit from this.

--

Naruto dashed to the Hokage's office, fearing for the absolute worst. He had just returned from a long week of spying, witnessing some a great deal of obscene torture but in the process gathering enough evidence to convict the man under suspicion. The urgent summons nailed messily to his door set off an uncontrollable set of unease in his mind. It was unlike the Hokage to summon him so soon after a mission, the symbol stamped on the bottom only served to worry him even more – it was one used only in the case of a top-priority summoning, usually during war.

Upon his arrival at the window – he hadn't even bothering entering the building – he knocked, trying unsuccessfully to remain calm though he noted that there wasn't any sign that something was wrong since Tsunade did not have a particularly worried expression. In fact Naruto noticed that she did not have any expression on her face except the one that she wore when she was asleep which meant that she was…asleep. Naruto stared at her sleeping form blankly, feeling slightly confused.

It was not until several moments later when Shizune walked into the room and, upon noticing the presence of a large looming figure outside the window, screamed did the Godaime awaken from her semi-comatose state. While her disciple was regaining her composure, Tsunade laughed and called him into the room.

"I see you've return."

"Yes, and with more than enough information. I'll get on the report right away, unless you have something for me to do? Though judging from the fact that you were asleep on the job again, I take it that there is nothing really serious going on." Naruto said, feeling amused that work actually got done in their village.

"You mean nobody has told you?" Tsunade said with a slightly bewildered look, not pausing to retort. "You have been notified about this before hand." She muttered to herself.

"What is this piece of news that you speak of? Because if anything exciting has occurred within the past few days I certainly do not know about it, seeing as I've just returned home." He replied wryly. Tsunade lost the slightly shocked expression and it was replaced with one that filled Naruto with sheer horror.

"It looks like I won't have the chance to sleep on the job anymore. You mean nobody has told you that you've just been named the Rokudaime?"

_-_

_Author's short note: I've been writing so much Naruto angst that I felt I owed a happy Naruto fic to him. I hope it's good! _


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